Scientists discovered an underwater volcano that looks like the Eye of Sauron. Naturally, they named everything around there after The Lord of the Rings.
Attention! The Eye of Sauron has been located…10,000 feet underwater off the coast of Australia’s Christmas Island Territory.
Okay, it’s not literally the Eye of Sauron, but it’s the closest thing we’re ever likely to get. In The Lord of the Rings series, the Dark Lord uses the Eye atop his fortress of Barad-dûr to look out on Middle-earth, driving mad those who look at it directly. As J.R.R. Tolkien himself puts it in The Return of the King:
"Far off the shadows of Sauron hung; but torn by some gust of wind out of the world, or else moved by some great disquiet within, the mantling clouds swirled, and for a moment drew aside; and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr. One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed."
Okay, so what does this have to do with our world? Well, scientist Tim O’Hara and his team discovered an ancient undersea volcano south of Christmas Island, according to the official Museums Victoria website. Being the Lord of the Rings superfans they are, the team members couldn’t help but notice that the image on their devices looked a lot like the Eye of Sauron:
Previously unknown and unimagined, this volcano emerged as a giant oval caldera—5.2 by 4.0 kilometres across, surrounded by a 300-metre-high rim (the eyelids) and with a small cone-shaped peak in the centre (the eye pupil). @DrTimOHara pic.twitter.com/82dVqTMlwc
— Museums Victoria (@museumsvictoria) July 22, 2021
Without getting into the complicated science of it all, when the magma that helps support the volcano’s inner chamber is pushed out, the entire volcano collapses. A large crater-esque structure is left behind from which a new volcano can arise. That’s the bit that reminded the scientists of the Eye of Sauron.
The scientists stuck with The Lord of the Rings theme as they named the surrounding areas. The smaller sea mountain near the eye they named Barad-dûr, while they dubbed the larger flat-topped seamount the Ered Lithui, or the Ash Mountains that form the northern border of Mordor.
The team of scientists figured, if they’re going to name the volcano after the infamous eye, they might as well lend to their theme by naming the areas around it. Pretty darn clever, if I do say so myself!
“Our ‘Barad Dur’ is surrounded by sharp peaks and pinnacles,” O’Hara told SyFy Wire. “Our ‘Ered Lithui’ is covered by a later of pumice stones—perhaps from the Eye of Sauron, or even from more recent eruptions, such as Krakatoa, so it really is a ‘mountain of ash.'”
Thanks to multibeam sonar technology and the diligent work of these scientists, we’ve gotten a look at the real-life version of the Eye of Sauron…but thankfully not too real. Even if Sauron were planning a takeover, we can take solace that he’d have a hard time spreading his doom and gloom from 10,000 feet underwater.
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